Müller Emil

Dällikon/ZH, May 17, 1954 - Emil Müller (third from right) was among the first in Switzerland to obtain a commercial helicopter pilot licence (archive J. Bauer)

Dubbeldam/Holland, May 7, 1956 - A sudden mechanical problem forced Emil Müller to make an emergency landing while at the controls of the Hiller 360 HB-XAD in service with Air Import (H. Dekker)

Emil Müller was born in Niederglatt/ZH on March 6, 1922. He was a military airplane instructor. Even more interested in the rotary wing, in the early 1950s he decided to become a helicopter pilot. Consequently he made contact with Air Import and attended a pilot course given by Albert Villard on the Hiller 360. On May 17, 1954 he obtained the Swiss commercial pilot licence n° 9 in Dällikon/ZH. In that period he left his job as a military pilot instructor and was hired by Air Import as a commercial helicopter pilot. On September 12, 1954, while flying the Hiller 360 HB-XAB for an advertising campaign in Germany, he was forced to do an emergency landing. The accident was caused by a tail rotor failure. Despite the fact that the helicopter was almost completely destroyed nor him or the co-pilot Walter Demuth were injured. On August 7, 1956 during a spray flight in Holland he was again forced to do an emergency landing after a sudden loss of power. In that occasion the helicopter was seriously damaged but he was not injured.

Andermatt/UR, winter 1957 - Emil Müller at the controls of the Agusta-Bell 47G2 HB-XAO in service with Heliswiss. The child in the cabin is Urs Aecherli, who later became an excellent helicopter pilot (U. Aecherli)

1957 - Emil Müller at the controls of the Agusta-Bell 47G HB-XAV fitted with a spray equipment (archive W. Demuth)

In January 1957 Müller was employed as a pilot by Heliswiss and was trained on the Bell 47 by the chief-pilot Leo Kunz. During the following summer he worked in Germany as a helicopter instructor. In 1958 along with the pilots Kunz and Kramer he received a distinction for his activity as a rescue pilot from the Swiss Life-Saving Society (SLSS).

In July 1960 he left Heliswiss and rejoined the Swiss armed forces as a helicopter pilot instructor. At that time he had a flight experience of about 1'900 hours on helicopters and 690 on airplanes. Unfortunately shortly after he had another accident with the SE 3130 Alouette 2 V-41 on the Morteratsch glacier. The helicopter was almost entirely destroyed but fortunately he reported only minor injuries. Emil Müller was not only an excellent pilot but was also an artist. He gave his contribution drawing manuals for the pilots. He once told me that it was not easy to fly with the early helicopters because the expectations were often too high, and this is why there were so many accidents. Emil Müller has passed away in Hergiswil at the age of 93 years on February 14, 2015.